Stockton urged to wage war on meth

STOCKTON - Curbing the scourge of methamphetamine abuse has to start with the youth, and it won't be a pretty picture.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - Curbing the scourge of methamphetamine abuse has to start with the youth, and it won't be a pretty picture.

That was the message journalist and author Scott Thomas Anderson delivered Thursday night at the Stockton Meth & Crime Town Hall.

Anderson cited a program that presents junior high school students with pictures of meth addicts - their open sores, sunken faces and horribly decayed teeth, what's called "meth mouth."

This gritty approach playing on one's personal vanity, which some find offensive when applied to young people, is the best way Anderson said he knows of discouraging meth use before its addiction sinks in.

Anderson spoke at an event organized by Celebrate Life Meth Free, a coalition of health care providers who organized to promote education about the effects of meth on people, families and the community.

Anderson was invited to talk about his book "Shadow People: How Meth-Driven Crime is Eating the Heart of Rural America," which chronicles his work as a crime reporter.

For seven years, he has covered crime. He works at The Press Tribune newspaper in Roseville. In his beat reporting, he quickly saw the underlying theme of meth abuse in stories ending in murder, child abuse and car stereo thefts.

His book is the culmination of a reporting project where he spent 18 months embedded with law enforcement focused on meth thanks to a grant from the Washington, D.C.-based Phillips Foundation.

Anderson said he didn't advocate giving up on helping adult addicts get cleaned up, but the relapse rates are so daunting that he more often encourages communities to focus on prevention.

Unfortunately, in economically tough times, behavioral health programs aimed at treating drug addicts are often the first to go, he said.

"It's not OK to cut all of your services," he said, noting that the result is a rise in property thefts and foster care for children whose parents can't care for them.

Stockton police Capt. Scott Meadors, who also spoke, said a large percentage of crimes are based in drug abuse, and often meth. Once known as a drug abused by whites, meth addiction now crosses all ethnic lines, he said.

A former meth addict in the audience shared his experience, first stealing car stereos and graduating to an armed robbery that landed him in state prison for 16 years. He blamed meth use and sales in the eastern part of Stockton.

Anderson said that Stockton features a prominent role in the Northern California meth trade. Highway 99 coming up Southern California and the city's central location unfortunately provides an ideal distribution center, he said.

In his investigations, Anderson spoke with hundreds of addicts and those involved in the drug trade. While working in Calaveras and Amador counties, they often told him Stockton was their source of meth.

In his talk, Anderson said he wanted to steer clear of politics, but the recent prison realignment, a change in state laws to reduce the state's inmate population, will keep meth addicts out of prison, he said.

This new reality for Stockton and communities throughout the state puts the discussion of fighting meth in the forefront, Anderson said.

"The time is now to take on this addiction," he said. "We have ... got to get them clean now."